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Orange Olive Oil Cake With Candied Walnuts
[Photograph: Carrie Vasios]
This dairy-free cake is nutty with a subtle brightness of orange. A topping of candied walnuts adds a festive crunch.
Bottom of cake adapted from Bon Appetit.
Orange Olive Oil Cake With Candied Walnuts
About This Recipe
| Yield: | serves 10 |
| Active time: | 40 minutes |
| Total time: | 1 hour 40 minutes |
| Special equipment: | 9 inch spring formpan, baking sheet, silpat sheet |
| This recipe appears in: | Serious Entertaining: Hanukkah Dinner Party |
Ingredients
- For Cake:
- 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon zested orange peel
- 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
- 1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for greasing pan
- For Topping:
- 1 1/2 cups walnut halves
- 2/3 cup sugar
- Coarse sea salt
- Powdered sugar
Procedures
-
1
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease springform pan with olive oil.
-
2
Place walnuts in food processor. Pulse until finely ground.
-
3
In a medium bowl, whisk together walnuts, flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
-
4
In a large bowl, beat eggs with an electric mixer until frothy, about 2 minutes.
-
5
Add sugar to eggs and beat until creamy, about 3 minutes. Stir in walnut mixture.
-
6
Add orange zest, orange juice, and olive oil and beat until combined.
-
7
Pour batter into prepared springform pan and bake until golden and a cake tester comes out clean, about 1 hour.
-
8
While cake is cooling, make topping. Line a baking sheet with silpat. Place sugar in a medium, heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium high heat. Cook sugar, stirring occasionally, until completely melted and light amber in color. Immediately add walnuts, and stir to combine.
-
9
Pour walnuts onto prepared baking sheet, working quickly to spread them out. Sprinkle them immediately with coarse sea salt.
-
10
To assemble: Dust top of cake with powdered sugar until evenly covered. Lightly break up any large chunks of walnuts and spread evenly over top of cake.
